Take creators stepping in and dismissing fan theories and interpretations of their works with a grain of salt. This is a lesson I learned early, from Anne “my vampires aren’t gay and also I might sue you” Rice.
During the peak of my Vampire Chronicles love, I – at that time, a very petty fifteen-year-old – set out to underline every single really queer moment in the whole series. Spite aside, I quickly realized that in a series where the protagonist runs away to Paris with clearly his violinist boyfriend, and convinces his next super angsty obviously boyfriend to MAKE A VAMPIRE CHILD WITH HIM to keep said angsty boyfriend from leaving, this was easier said than done.
I mean, she’s not fully wrong – Lestat’s not gay, he’s very bisexual. Louis and Nicki are both hella gay, though.
Anyway, I’ve meandered. The point is – creators can say wildly inaccurate things about their works sometimes. Anne Rice went Christian and didn’t want her books to be SUPER FUCKING QUEER anymore. Creators’ views on what they’ve made can change over the years. You never fucking know.
Sometimes I just want to wave my English major wand over fandom and cover everyone in “the author is dead” pixie dust. Because…it doesn’t matter??? The second they put their creation out into the world, they forfeited the right to be the sole authority on its interpretation.
One of the most important things anyone ever told me, as both a writer and a reader, was when my AP English teacher said to me, “Your thesis statement can be whatever you want it to be. You can tell me that King Lear is gay and in love with Kent, and divvying up his kingdom between his daughters is his way of divesting himself of the role of heterosexual fatherhood he’s been forced into. I don’t care what you say – you just need to show me how the text supports it.”
Creators put things in their work that they didn’t consciously intend to. Creators intend things in their work that don’t come through in the text. Once it leaves their hands, it’s yours now.
You have been visited by the Thor of Positivity™! Take pride in your work and be confident in it! It may not be perfect but he knows you are working very hard and pouring your passion into it and therefore it is a Good Thing.
THE THOR OF POSITIVITY SHALL NOW AND FOREVER MORE BE THE BEST THING EVER
“I’m writing my novel,” I say as I sit staring at the void for half an hour while the scene that I’m trying to write replays in my head with slight variations. “Writing.”
I’m in the final leg of my dissertation: I have all but one of five chapters written in draft form. But now I am in this place where I have a limited amount of time and I am awash in feedback from my committee members and rewrites. I have to do one final archival trip to finish the last chapter, I have to do other smaller archival visits to restructure/revise key chapters and I’m doing part-time work grading and RAing and… It’s just a. lot.
Anyone who’s completed a diss or MA thesis have advice/books/links to resources you found helpful in the writing process?
I did a sciency thesis so idk how helpful anything I did would be for you. I found it helpful to take out a block of time and only focus on ONE thing.
I mean last week I browsed google scholar trying to find details about the composition of ancient Byzantine shampoo and ended up google translating an article written in Hungarian, so. You’re probably fine, nonnie. We’re all quirky here.
Friends, please reblog and tell me what is the most obsessive detail you’ve researched at length for fic writing purposes!
It’s a tossup between research on transatlantic travel in the latter part of the 19th century, and research on orcas in Sea World.
Probably sluice gate construction and installation methods, for field drainage in Tudor England… and/or the life stages of various bloodborne parasites and their attendant bacteria plus the comparative structures of avian and mamalian lungs, so I could design a superficially plausible xenobiological plague vector.
I once spent 3+ hours researching bird species of the Himalayas to come up with the phrase “the little brown bird.”
I know so god damned much about sailing.
I spent more then a decent amount of time looking up how jets, tanks, and cars coolant systems work.
*cough* The interior working of different engine types and how they would function in a robotic frame. Different liquids necessary for optimal functionality vs what they could barely need to survive. What rust does to different types of metal. Melting points of metal. How fluctuations of electrical current effect electronic components and systems in conjunction with how electricity is used in a human body to.ellicate pleasure and horrendous pain, like where the cut off point would be. Psycological traumas and how much varying individuals can take before they kinda have a breakdown. There’s actually more, but I think I may just have freaked out a few people so yeah. Needless to say I don’t keep my browsing history around too long. XD
Genital mutilation. Not fun, let me tell you.
Tolkien languages. All the Elven languages specifically. And linguistics in general. Trying to account for the linguistic drift of the Avari who kinda just stayed put in the East when they refused Oromë’s call… All based on six friggin’ cognates the Quenya term “quendi”.
I studied the floor plan to the Titanic so I could place the characters in the correct room and researched the type of vegetables they served in the second class restaurant on board.
I did a batch of reasurch on some specific archeological digs around churches/burial sites in Transylvania. Everything from why they were there to the names of the volunteers, where they stayed, and what they ate.
Researching the Pashtun Tribes claims of being descendants of one of the 12 lost tribes of Israel, including historical dates of biblical migration; all because I’ve changed the age and ethnicity of an original character whose known by a certain name that isn’t from that region and I had to find a historical and regional name that is possible to mishear as the name he’s known by.
Looking up what the sentence is for 5 counts of murder is in the state of Washington.
Crap, that just reminded me of another time I looked up most of the prominent serial killers in the history of the US so a character could recreate the kills as sign of adoration to impress the sociopath he was in love with even though they’d never met or had any contact.
Finding a route from particular types of mountains somewhere near the Canadian border to New Orleans that would fit a very specific time frame, along with key shopping complexes to avoid a route that had too many stores and restaurants. @darlinglisa I still blame you.
The names of the city gates of Tashkent in the 15th century. From a Russian manuscript. Taken from an ancient etching.
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